The Congress of El Salvador, dominated by the ruling party, granted a six-month license to President Nayib Bukele on Thursday night, requested by the president. to seek his immediate re-election in the general elections of February 2024, despite accusations that it is unconstitutional.
(Also read: The keys to Bukele’s license application to run for re-election in El Salvador)
“Grant leave to the President of the Republic, Nayib Armando Bukele Ortez, for a period of 6 months, from December 1, 2023 to May 31, 2024, which must be exercised without pay and with all the prerogatives that the position holds,” reads the decree approved by 67 votes of the 84 deputies and with exemption from processing.
The last precedent of a president seeking immediate re-election occurred under the dictatorship of Maximiliano Hernández Martínez in 1935.
Legislators also voted for Bukele, who did not appear in person before Congress to request the license, to maintain his immunity. Therefore, any complaint could not be criminally prosecuted without going through Congress.
(You may be interested: Nayib Bukele asks the Salvadoran prosecutor to ‘investigate’ his cabinet: this is the reason)
The legislative decree, whose effects will begin one day after its publication in the Official Gazette, also grants license to the vice president, Félix Ulloa, who will seek re-election alongside Bukele for the ruling party Nuevas Ideas (NI).
The document indicates that the license “at no time generates a break in the bond between the official and the body he represents, s“but only suspends the exercise of the powers or public function required by his position.”
This implies, the decree adds, that Bukele “no longer exercises the administrative function or activity that the position of president entails, of course without leaving the investiture of the position that he holds and the prerogatives that he has.”
(Also read: They ask to cancel Nayib Bukele’s re-election candidacy in El Salvador)
This license is the last requirement, established in a questioned ruling of the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of 2021 and which was chosen by the ruling party without following the legal process, for Bukele to compete for a new mandate in the elections of the 4th. of February.
🇸🇻 | BREAKING NEWS: Officially Nayib Bukele leaves the presidency to seek re-election.
Today, with 67 votes in favor, the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador has granted a 6-month license to President Nayib Bukele and Vice President Félix Ulloa, allowing them to participate… pic.twitter.com/ROC9mN2HhV
— World Alert (@AlertaMundial2) December 1, 2023
The ruling dictates that “the president who has run as a presidential candidate for a second term must be required to request a license during the six months prior” to the beginning of the next term.
Before this change in criteria, which various lawyers say is not a legal mandate because the election of the magistrates did not take place according to the legal process, a president had to wait 10 years after concluding his term to run. In March 2021 and before becoming president, Bukele stated that in El Salvador the Constitution does not allow the immediate re-election of a president.
Today, power in El Salvador does not adapt or submit to the rules. The rules adapt to power, to submit us.
Representative Johnny Wright, of the opposition party Nuestro Tiempo (NT), warned before the vote that the license to participate in the campaign is not protected by the Constitution. He indicated that the Constitution itself prohibits immediate re-election, so Bukele’s justification does not fall within the parameters of being a “duly proven serious cause.”
“Today, the power in El Salvador does not adapt, nor does it submit to the rules. The rules adapt to the power, to submit us,” said Wright, adding that this situation “is a true tragedy for our country, for the region and for the world”.
For her part, deputy Claudia Ortiz, from the opposition party VAMOS, said that “you cannot give a license for something that is illegal, you cannot give a license to violate the Constitution.”
EFE
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